It's been a while since we've had the original Thermaltake Frio CPU cooler on the BCCHardware test bench, but that's about to change as we've got the new and improved Frio OCK CPU cooler that we are going to review today. We tested the original Thermaltake Frio over 2 years ago and overall we were very impressed with it so one would think that the newly updated version should be a very good cooler as well.

Just like the original Frio cooler, the Frio OCK is also a heatpipe tower design (which has become the most popular design) and features a 120mm fan strapped to each side for very good airflow. The new Frio OCK is rated for 240 Watts of heat (the original Frio was only 220 Watts) which should be more than enough to cool even the hottest CPU around and leave you plenty of room for overclocking if you are into that. Seeing as even the hottest CPU produces less than 160 Watts of heat you should be safe with the Frio OCK being able to handle anything you throw at it.

Well enough with the introductions, let's take a closer look to see what the Frio OCK is all about in the next section.

First Impressions:

Box (Front)

Front View

So as you can see in the pictures already, the Frio OCK looks pretty similar to a bunch of different coolers already thanks to the heatpipe tower design that it uses. The Frio OCK, just like the original Frio, has a 120mm fan on both sides of the cooler for lots of airflow. Having two fans mounted on a big heatsink makes for a big cooler so you will want to make sure you have lots of room in your case before ordering this cooler. Chances are pretty good though that most mid-size and full-tower cases should have enough room for a cooler this big, but if you have some mini case you might be out of luck when it comes to using this cooler.

Front View

Top View

Side View

Bottom View

As far as accessories go, the Frio OCK comes with everything you need to get it installed onto pretty much any AMD or Intel CPU sold in the last 5 years. As you will see in the next set of pictures all of the mounting hardware is neatly packed into a little black box which sure beats being given a bag of screws and a piece of paper to help you identify what piece goes where. Thermaltake gets top marks for seperating everything very nicely and it helps speed up installation because it's super easy to find the pieces you need.

Heatsink (Fans Removed)

Accessories

One of the biggest differences between the original Frio and the Frio OCK is that the original Frio had a fan mounted on each side of the cooler individually while this new Frio OCK has both fans attached together and they are easily removable via a couple tabs on the side which allow you to slide off both fans and the plastic top piece of the cooler very easily. On the original Frio you would have had to unscrew each fan individually.

During installation you will need to remove the fans from the Frio OCK in order to secure the cooler to the mounting brackets which is super easy on the Frio OCK but we will get into that in more detail in the installation section of this review.

Fans Removed from Heatsink

Heatsink Side View

So there we go, that's what the Frio OCK is all about, let's move onto the next section for all the details about this cooler.